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It can be very disappointing when your SEO campaign fails. You spend time researching your area, your topic, drafted your content and then wrote this incredible piece. You even worked outreach, with emails being sent to the right people, pitches sent, tweets, all of it. And then, nothing happened. You didn’t get any shares, no links came back to you. Nothing.

Unfortunately, a sad truth in our industry is that plenty of SEO campaigns will fail eventually, for various reasons. It is just a fact that all marketers have to deal with. Not every campaign that you launch is going to be an enormous success. But just because your campaign wasn’t massively successful doesn’t mean that it was necessarily a failure.

To quote Len Schlesinger, “Failure doesn’t mean the game is over, it means try again with experience.” If your SEO campaign does indeed fail, then it’s time to get over your disappointment and work out what went wrong in order to do better the next time. Learn from the experience so that all of your time and effort doesn’t go to waste and so that you can get your campaign back on track.

Why SEO Campaigns Fail

There are tons of various reasons that SEO campaigns fail, but the top two are:

Budget

While you don’t have to spend a ton on your SEO campaigns, your budget is very important and if not handled correctly can cause you to fail. Most companies go into their SEO efforts and their campaigns with unrealistic timelines and budgets. They think they are going to be able to see incredible results overnight while only investing a little into the work.

Goals

Similar to the budget, a lot of companies will have unrealistic goals going into their SEO campaigns. If you want your campaign to be successful, then you have to be realistic with your objectives. You are not going to be able to rank #1 for every single one of your keywords overnight. You probably won’t rank #1 for every single one of your keywords in three months. If it was that easy, everyone would be #1 for whatever they wanted.

Going into your campaign, you need to think objectively. So many people go in thinking that they are going to rank for 15 different keywords immediately. Instead, you should start out with one keyword or product to optimize for. Once you see success with that, then you can build on that. By building on your success, you are more likely to reach your goals and see real progress.

Your goals also need to be realistic, time-wise. SEO does not happen overnight. There is very little instant gratification in this industry. You have to give it time. It will probably take about a month or so for you to start seeing a boost in your SEO, and 6 months to see your link in the top of the search results. If it doesn’t happen as quickly as you’d like, keep working on it. Make sure you are constantly improving your content and your keywords.

What to Do After Your SEO Campaign Fails

Re-Evaluate the Campaign

After your campaign fails, it can be tempting to throw in the towel. But after you put in all that time and effort, you don’t want to throw it away. Go over the campaign and the results and see what exactly went wrong.

First, take a look at the content itself. Is it actually as awesome as you originally thought? You need your content to be as high-quality and relevant as possible. Try having someone else read over it or make any changes you find in the piece.

Next, look at your outreach. This is where a lot of people fail. You probably aren’t going to have great success by just sending out unsolicited emails shoving a piece of content down someone’s throat. Part of outreach is identifying the people you want to reach and building relationships with them prior to sending out your content.

After you identify those you want to send your content to, you can’t just start talking to them like you are best friends. You need to start communicating with them to build that relationship. Comment on their Facebook posts or tweet out to them. It doesn’t have to be anything major, just start engagement so they know who you are and understand what you do. You also want to make sure you pick the right platform when doing so, though. Sometimes, people don’t check their Twitter as much as other platforms, or their mentions are so overcrowded they won’t see your tweet.

Once you do some relationship building, and you decide to send out your content, then you need to track your outreach. You can use tools to help you see if your email was opened, like SideKick or Rapportive. This can help you to see if people just aren’t opening your emails or if they are opening them and forgetting to respond. If so, reach back out to them.

Retry the Campaign

After you have gone through the campaign and looked at what worked and what didn’t, you should consider trying again. Maybe you got some results back, they just weren’t what you were looking for. Sometimes, any feedback is better than none. If you did get some results back, then think about doing it again now that you’ve gotten more information on the campaign and how you should be handling your outreach.

Now, this isn’t for every campaign. Some aren’t going to give you results. But if you honestly think that this is a good piece of content that audiences will enjoy, keep trying. Honestly, you are going to hear no a lot, or not even hear anything back from your outreach. But if your content is good enough, then eventually it will work.

Change It Up

Finally, if you go over your campaign and you don’t see very good results, but you think it has potential, then consider changing up your content. You’ve spent all this time and effort into it, you don’t want to just throw it away. Maybe you turn it into a blog for your own website, or take the content and make a video to put on social media instead.

There is always something that you can do with it so it doesn’t just get filed away and forgotten about. As long as you are getting some results and your performance is increasing, then you are on the right track and eventually will get to the bigger campaigns that will bring you the links you want

Conclusion

Having your SEO campaign fall is never fun. But as it is with most marketing (and life) projects, not everything is going to a huge success. Go over what worked, what didn’t and decide how to move forward objectively. There is success to be found, you just have to work on it and not give up.

Building relationships takes time but growing and maintaining them long term takes perseverance, energy and purpose.

Jack Trout, Ad Exec and Author of Big Brands, Big Trouble says, “Marketing battles take place in the mind of a consumer or prospect. That’s where you win or lose.”

We live in seriously disposable times. People outgrow their use for things and each other, so quickly. I always pay close attention when people talk about following certain people and companies for a long time. That’s really hard to do today. How can we build long term loyalty and win favor in the minds of the consumer?

7 Ways to Build Long Term Customer Loyalty

Be Authentic and Real

Be who you are, walk your walk and do what you tell others to do. People are way more savvy today and pick up on wrong or suspect intentions and motives quickly. Sure we all have something to sell, but let people know you have their back and “get” their pain. Can people relate to you? Are you being consistent and authentic?

Deliver Fresh, Fab and Fun

It’s all about the experience we create and have with people and companies we interact with. Make sure you are refreshing your sites, visuals, marketing materials and presentation. We all love things that are new, but putting a different spin on something we already do can stimulate people too. Make things easy to follow, entertaining and culturally relevant.

Directly Acknowledge Others

Nobody achieves success without the support of others. Be vocal, step up and directly acknowledge people who step up and support you. Use your social influence and media streams to shout out, re-post and let others know that you appreciate them. A simple “thank you” that is not automated can go a long way. All of the main social media’s now offer posting enhancements to add personalizing emotions.

Rewards, Incentives and Exclusivity

Develop ways to give extra value to people who show you loyalty. Make them feel exclusive and special by creating a separate database for them. Use it to extend exclusive offers, content or incentives. Show them an “inner circle” status. Look at all the premium loyalty programs that exist today and follow a model that’s best for you.

Connect and Introduce People

Always be finding reasons to connect people for the right reasons and most apparent synergy, when you meet people at conferences, events and online. I know when I meet people, who in my sphere I should be introducing them to and I try to act on it quickly, while the interaction is fresh.

Feature, Reference and Mention

Know your colleagues, audience, customers and followers. Use them as examples in the things you write about, present on, post about and things you value. Blogging and social media are great ways to do this. Use your comment section to discover and choose some great follower feedback. Be selective, qualify and check people’s body of work out before featuring them.

Collaborate and Partner

In today’s business landscape, adding value to what you offer or deliver can be easily accomplished by partnering with other companies, products and services that are complementary to yours. Look at all the multi-branding and cross-branding that you see in travel, consumer products, education, sports and entertainment. We can now go to one store or shopping area and get groceries, eyeglasses, flowers, auto supplies, yogurt and stamps. Find ways to collaborate and partner but be very careful to “vet” people and know who you are entering into partnerships with.

Loyalty and longevity are the highest compliments a business can be given by their public. They are earned by valuing a deep appreciation for others and maintained by showing that appreciation consistently.

Even though technically a landing page is any web page that a visitor can ‘land on’, it is a page uniquely designed for a call to action or CTA. This of course will vary depending on what your goal is when someone visits the landing page. And if it succeeds in guiding them to your intended conversion goal, then your landing page has done its job.

As a standalone part of your website, creating a good landing page is essential whether you want to monetize your site or not, if your goal is to convert your users.

Creating the right landing page will require the right tool, so here are some landing page creating applications you can use to make that possible.

Landing Page Builders

Leadpages

With more than 350 templates to choose from, including hundreds of mobile-responsive options, Leadpages is sure to have a landing page that resonates with your business model.

The drag and drop customization makes it easy for you to get up and going with your custom design and their analytic tools allow you to track the effectiveness of your conversions.

Pricing structures are well discounted when paid annually. On a monthly basis the Standard plan is $25/month, Pro is $49/month and the Advanced for teams and agencies is $199/month.

Unbounce

The ultimate goal of a landing page is to keep your visitors from bouncing off of it and Unbounce does just that.

A free trial run will allow you to explore their Unbounce builder before committing any further. The templates in the Unbounce library are fully customizable making it hassle-free to maintain your brands image. The integrating functionalities within Unbounce tie in well with WordPress, CRM’s and marketing platforms.

Unbounce is considered mid-to-high in terms of pricing but the feature rich set is well-suited for a more hands-on management to your landing page.

The base level for new businesses starts $49/month with the top enterprise level starting at $499/month.

OptimizePress

Keep in mind that OptimizePress is designed to work exclusively with WordPress, but if you are building a site on that platform it may be a great choice for you. The membership site features are quite extensive making it an interesting option for those creating sites with paid subscriptions.

At the time of this writing, OptimizePress packages are currently deeply discounted with a range of $97 to $297. Remember it’s a one-time fee with the only recurring charge being an option to renew yearly support.

IncomePress

Free is the keyword with IncomePress. The barebones lead page generator will get your squeeze page set up in record time. The simple interface contains fields for images, video and a standard Aweber form for visitors to leave their email address.

Ucraft

Another free option to create landing pages is Ucraft. The site offers templates in a range of categories including Business, Personal, Health, Wedding, Design, Portfolio and App. Once you chose a template your landing page should be up running in minutes.

For those able to dive in and do some building Ucraft offers an $8 per month plan with more features.

GetResponse

With a built-in image editor that has 1,000+ free images, GetResponse allows you to customize your landing page and make it your own.

The templates available are 100% responsive making them a great choice in the current mobile first environment. Drag and drop editors, email editors and flexible publishing options make GetResponse a user-friendly option. They even offer subdomains for those that have ventured into their web address.

Prices are part of more comprehensive packages that include email management, auto responders and webinar platforms.

The base package is $15/month with a top enterprise option of $799/month.

Instapage

Touted as the most powerful landing page generator, Instapage has an impressive list of more than 250,000 customers.

Their model is a four-step process that gets your landing page up and running. Their specialties are centered on conversion-ready and lead generation templates. Aside from their 100+ options, templates can be customized as well as imported to integrate with their analytics and testing tools.

The basic plan is $29/month when paid annually and includes unlimited pages, visitors and domains.

Pagewiz

Your custom-landing page within minutes – as stated by Pagewiz. The professional landing page design tool makes the process as easy as possible.

Once your landing page is up, the Pagewiz system allows you to monitor real-time statistics from site visitors and manage multiple email recipients to keep them engaged. Pagewiz landing pages employ unique widgets that enrich the user experience – thus increasing the odds of conversion.

A 30-day free trial with no credit card required is a great starting point. From there the basic package starts at $29/month with the top end pro package at $199/month.

ClickFunnels

Sales funnels are a key component in client conversion and the main point of landing pages.

ClickFunnels specializes in getting visitors into the funnel and coming out on the other end as your client. The website includes an array of statistics on the best way to make conversions happen. Their system allows you to test each landing page and funnel to decipher the most effective one for your particular model.

Lander

Lander has a mission to create a landing page that helps convert your visitors into paying customers and that’s exactly what you want.

Their features are built and managed with the sole-purpose of conversion. From the design standpoint, the easy to use editor allows you to change templates and colors, while the A/B Testing Tool allows you to geek out on all the analytics.

The integrated embedding tools include a Facebook page tab and Google Maps coordinator, tying in with the social media platforms where most of your visitors are likely to come from.

A 14-day free trial welcomes you into the Basic $16/month plan with options to upgrade to enterprise levels.

Landingi

Landingi’s strongpoint is customer service and training with live online trainings and webinars that keep you abreast on the latest in landing pages and increasing conversions.

Landingi also helps you design custom landing pages if you are not able to find one that fits your style amongst the 100+ template library. Features include an easy-to-use landing editor, forms that collect visitor data and an inbox style data tool that collects and manages your leads.

Pricing ranges from $19/month to $499/month depending on leads generated and they also have a free version.

OptinSkin

OptinSkin keeps it simple with only 18 templates to choose from. If you are able to dabble with HTML and CSS you can forward them you’re code base and they’ll work with you to realize your custom design.

OptinSkin consults with their users by building on their current strengths. Their system allows you to embed the landing page into your 10 most popular posts creating a cycle of visitor retention and eventual conversion. Continuous split-testing options allow you to evolve your design for maximum results.

Confidence in their approach is proven by their 60-day money back guarantee. If you are satisfied and decided to continue they have two price categories: single site at $67 and multi-site at $97.

Leadsius

Leadsius offers in house hosting and automatic lead tracking systems that manage your incoming traffic. They also have and SEO tool bar that maximizes your landing pages potential to rank higher on search engines.

The free version will have badges on your marketing but will have all features and capabilities. The $45/month premium package includes unlimited user accounts and badge free marketing.

Launchrock

Launchrock is created for sites that are under construction. A well-designed “Coming Soon” page can help you acquire a waiting list of customers.

So far more than 800,000 registered startups have used Launchrock to advise visitors of their grand openings. With a new startup joining Launchrock every 2.9 minutes the next one could be yours.

These temp pages are still feature-rich with fully responsive designs and forms that capture visitors and even pre-sale commerce. So don’t feel like you’re not ready to launch. Get your free Launchrock page up before you lose any potential customers.

Hello Bar

Hello Bar is a landing page supplement. A thin bar that runs across the top of any page that serves two purposes: you can display an important message to your visitors as well as capture their contact information.

The Hello Bar can be used as a standalone tool on any page throughout your website or it can be used within your landing page as an additional touch point to further engage your visitors.

Adding a Hello Bar is free and easy. The homepage itself has a Hello Bar style field that asks for your domain name and gets you setup. Don’t underestimate the power of this small call-to-action.

Landing pages are all Pro’s with virtually no Con’s. Just about every website will benefit from having one. Whether or not you are selling a product, visitor engagement and retention is key to grow your online presence.

Music streaming platform Pandora is rolling out the full version of its visual ad experience that caters to users, after beta testing brands such as Denny’s, Express and Google saw a 50 percent increase in time spent with the ads on mobile.

More than half (54 percent) of online purchasers said they had read online reviews prior to hitting the buy button, while 39 percent of consumers who made purchases in-store did so, according to a study from customer ratings and review firm Bazaarvoice Inc. (Internet Retailer)

For startup owners who want to stand out from the rest, they must focus on how to be found online by those who are seeking what they are offering. It is essential for them to develop a digital marketing strategy that successfully promotes their brands and/or services online.

The Next Steps Singh Provides Share How to Attract and Retain Clients through the Internet:

To start, it is important to set up a website for your startup if you haven’t already. Whether you hire someone to design and create your website or choose to build your own is up to you. However, it is often more cost-effective for a startup owner, especially one with a low budget, to build a website.